Engineered vs DesignedBritespan buildings are engineered in-house for use around the world, offering superior structural integrity in all climates and geographical weather conditions. While engineering may not always be required to obtain a building permit, it is required to be able to insure your building. Our cutting-edge design team has set the standard and continues to raise the bar with innovative fabric building solutions.

The engineered Britespan building you are quoted up front will withstand the conditions of the site to which it has been engineered without all of the surprise price increases. Supplying strong, safe and reliable buildings is a top priority for us when we design and engineer our buildings. Britespan incorporates all of the critical design factors into our buildings so you do not have to worry about your building's safety. Before you get a quote on your building we will have made sure to comply with all North American and International building codes for:

wind and snow loads

thermal factors

importance categories

enclosure categories

exposure factors

CustomizationBritespan offers the widest product line in the fabric building industry, with seven building series profiles and widths up to 300' wide. When you need something that is more custom, our engineering and technical departments will design a building solution that fits your specific needs, customizing the height, width, foundation, and more. Britespan will customize your building to incorporate colours, branding and logo printing, ventilation, interior layouts, door and end wall options, foundations and space requirements to meet your needs.

Quality MaterialsBritespan's steel trusses and building components are made of North American steel. What does that mean to you, the end user? It's an assurance of quality.

Steel from outside of North America has often been recycled and repurposed so many times, that the quality and lifespan is very poor. When you purchase a steel framed fabric building from Britespan, you know that you are purchasing a structure that been engineered to stand the test of time, but also constructed out of materials that will stand the test of time.

When you buy North American steel products, you are buying a product that meets the highest quality standards backed by certified steel manufacturers.

Steel vs Fabric Roof SystemsBritespan's non-corrosive tension fabric roof system is a heavy weight fabric constructed of two parts, the scrim and 4 mil coatings. The unique composition of the scrim, coatings and how they are woven together give the fabric its tremendous rip, tear and puncture strength. The specialized 4 mil coatings provide a more uniform and thicker protection layer for the scrim, increasing ultraviolet protection. The thicker coatings are more resistant to abrasion damage during both fabrication and installation of the fabric cover.

There are many benefits of choosing a fabric building over a traditional building. Unlike conventional buildings, for example, where the outer covering is often punctured thousands of times to attach the roofing and wall cladding, steel framed fabric structures are much more airtight reducing air and heat loss. The fabric cover has non-conductive properties that reduce the transmission of heat and cold, making the building feel warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. The translucent properties of the fabric covers allow natural daylight into the building, reducing or eliminating daytime lighting costs, and creating safe environments for workers.

Galvanized Steel Trusses & ComponentsAll galvanizing is not the same. There are two different types of galvanized pipe: in-line (triple coat/Gatorshield or pre-galvanized) and post production hot dipped galvanized. While both use zinc coating, the application is the most critical part.

Britespan applies hot dipped galvanizing to all of their trusses post production (after all fabrication is complete), which uses an entirely different process to ensure lifelong corrosion protection and a much longer service life. We start with untreated black structural steel. We bend and weld the raw steel into our trusses. Holes are drilled into the pipe to ensure the galvanizing reaches every surface. After that, the trusses are submerged in a bath of molten zinc where they receive a coating on every surface inside and out that is three times thicker than the coating on the outside of in-line galvanized pipe. This process means that your building will offer a service life that is approximately three times longer than the in-line galvanized alternative.

In-line galvanized pipe is rolled through a waterfall of zinc and the pipe is coated on the outside, painted on the inside, and is then sent out to be manufactured. The pipe is bent, welded into trusses, and shipped out. Unfortunately, the welding of the trusses burns off the paint on the inside of the pipe, leaving it unprotected and susceptible to rust before it ever gets erected.

Portable & Temporary OptionsBritespan's portable and temporary foundation options are one of the many ways we are able to provide economical building solutions for short and long term building needs. By simply choosing a temporary foundation type like blocks, sea containers, or a base rail anchor foundation, our customers are able to take down and move their buildings to a new job site, or store them until they are needed again. In addition, these types of foundations create little to no environmental impact. If the end user decides to move from the current building location to another, the site the building was constructed on can easily return to its original state.

Construction TimeBritespan fabric structures are pre-engineered and manufactured, and ready to be shipped unless the building is a custom design. This allows a fabric structure to be erected in weeks instead of months. Our customers can move into their building quickly, with minimal interruptions to daily operations. Choosing a Britespan fabric building also reduces the costs associated with constructing the building. Wood and steel buildings tend to have a labour intensive construction process. Steel buildings can be costly, difficult to ship to remote areas, can be time consuming to construct, and are essentially permanent structures. Britespan fabric structures are engineered as permanent buildings and are also easily erected in remote areas because of their design and foundation options.

VentilationBritespan fabric buildings feature a clearspan and high roof design which results in a large volume of interior air space. In agricultural uses, this draws the warm moist air up and away from equipment, machinery, commodities, or livestock. With the ability to offer side ventilation, end wall ventilation and roof ventilation, warm moist air, including odours, can easily be vented from buildings. In commercial, retail and industrial uses, the non-corrosive and non-permeable fabric cover allows for increased control and air management. Ventilation and heating/cooling systems are easy to install and manage.